cybervegan<p><span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://mastodon.scot/@JackTheCat" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>JackTheCat</span></a></span> <span class="h-card" translate="no"><a href="https://beige.party/@TheBreadmonkey" class="u-url mention" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">@<span>TheBreadmonkey</span></a></span> It depends what you want to do really. In some cases a windows VM will work, but getting data to flow between the VM and your Linux host can be a <a href="https://autistics.life/tags/PITA" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>PITA</span></a>. I haven't used VMs on Linux for *quite* a while, but the easiest used to be <a href="https://autistics.life/tags/VirtualBox" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>VirtualBox</span></a>. I'd avoid VMWare Workstation, if that's even still a thing.</p><p>In my experience, WINE is *usually* the best answer if you can't get a native Linux-based *alternative* program for the thing you want to do. A lot of new Linux users still think in terms of how they used to do things on Windoze, and that will get you a reasonable way, but you'll end up fighting with the fact that Linux simply IS NOT Windoze. It doesn't do much, if anything, like windoze does - particularly at the "binary" level, so native windows programs (.EXEs) simply can't run without something to "pretend" that windoze is really there. That's what WINE does, and although others have tried for DECADES to make a compatability layer, starting with SUN's WABI (Windows Application Binary Interface) back in the 90's. Nobody seems to have managed to get as far as WINE in making it come true, without using a VM.</p><p>So before diving into the potential nightmare of "getting $favourite windows program" working on Linux, check out any native alternatives first. If there really *aren't* any native alternatives, and you have a load of windoze apps you absolutely *have* to have, Linux might not be for you.</p>